The technology of the present disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus.
Conventionally, there has been known an image forming apparatus including a photosensitive drum, a conveying belt for conveying a sheet, and a transfer roller brought into press-contact with the photosensitive drum while interposing the conveying belt between the photosensitive drum and the transfer roller. The aforementioned sheet is conveyed to a downstream side while being interposed by the conveying belt and the photosensitive drum. The transfer roller receives a transfer voltage with a polarity opposite to a charged polarity of toner when the sheet passes through a nip position formed between the conveying belt and the photosensitive drum. In this way, a toner image carried on the photosensitive drum is transferred to the sheet. At a downstream side in a sheet conveyance direction of the aforementioned nip position, a stretching roller is provided. The stretching roller stretches the conveying belt at a separation position at which the sheet is separated from the conveying belt.
In this type of image forming apparatus, the rear end of the sheet jumps to the photosensitive drum side by a conveyance attitude of the sheet when the sheet passes through the separation position. As a consequence, there is a problem that toner carried on the sheet scatters.
There have been proposed various technologies for preventing such toner scattering. In an example of these technologies, a conveyance auxiliary roller is provided in the vicinity of the downstream side of the aforementioned separation position to assist the conveyance of the sheet, so that the conveyance attitude of the sheet passing through the separation position is stabilized. In this way, the jumping-up of the rear end of the above-described sheet is suppressed. The conveyance auxiliary roller includes a conductive member and is grounded.